The New B2B: Bigness To Business

I’m obsessed with a show called Shark Tank.  Have you seen this?  It’s brilliant.  Five uber successful business people including Daymond John of the $350 million clothing line FUBU and Kevin O’Leary who sold his educational software business to Mattel for $3.7 BILLION give budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to take their business ideas to a life-changing level by investing their own money.  And every time they make a deal, I get weepy.  It’s true.

What I love about this show is that people are given the platform to launch their bigness – their talent, their vision, whoever they’re here to be and give to the world – into a business – to share with the world.

Most of these people have put their own cash and priceless amounts of time and energy into these endeavors.  Their ideas often come to them intuitively and in a courageous instant they begin to take faith-filled steps forward.  In doing so they’ve secured patents and trademarks for products that began as a spark of an idea in their mind.  Now they stand before a panel of dream-makers on a national stage ready to say yes to bringing their bigness to life.  It’s manifestation in motion.

What fascinates me is those who get the deal and those who do not.  What is the real difference between them?   Is it really their idea that ignites the bidding war between the potential investors?  Is it the target market?  Or is it something that’s not even seen?

I heard Roxanne Quimby, founder of Burt’s Bees, say, “The way to make a million dollars first and foremost is to make it in your mind and totally believe you have absolutely everything it takes.”  Roxanne went on to sell that company for $177 million.  Did she have that exact number in her mind?  Maybe.  Did she “totally believe” she had everything it takes?  Without question.

I believe that you are here to be big in this world.  What does that bigness look like?  What is that idea you’ve been ignoring or avoiding?  It’s your duty as a person on this earth to unleash that vision and share it boldly with the world.

Are you ready and willing to start right now?

You can begin with these 3 simple steps:

1. SEE yourself in this vision.
2. FEEL yourself selling that product, speaking on that book tour, receiving that award, etc.
3. BELIEVE you have everything it takes right here and right now to make that happen.

I know you do. I see it, feel it, and believe it for you.  And that makes me weepy, too.

Now go turn that bigness into your business!

Finding the “Message” in the “Mess”

I was walking my dog today and came upon this sign.  I immediately knew it was a message and also a metaphor for what’s been present for me over the past few months.

I’d been feeling disconnected from myself.  I had let my morning practice go, I’d not been eating well or sleeping enough and the word exercise had been permanently removed from my vocabulary.  I was focusing on the “mess”, illustrated quite nicely here in the form of graffiti, behind the message.   That was easy.  “So shine” felt too hard.

At 2:00 in the afternoon something in me pushed past my resistance and I began to do my “morning” practice at that hour.  As I was writing in my journal, stating and adamantly claiming all that I was ready for and wanted, including commitment from others personally and professionally, I heard this very faint voice say, “Really?  You want other people to commit to you when you haven’t  been committed to yourself?  How could that possibly work?  You are teaching people how to treat you by the way you treat yourself.  You must first become the thing you want for yourself to yourself.  Then the thing you want will come.”  I knew then it was time to become the commitment I was seeking from others.  But how?

Almost immediately, the Mary Oliver poem came to mind where she says, “To live in this world you must be able to do three things:

1.  To love what is mortal, temporary, and fleeting.
2.  To hold it against your bones as if your life depends on it.
3.  And when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.”

Today I realized that I want to enter into this relationship with myself as if my life depends on it, because the truth is, it does.  I want to let go of focusing on the “mess” and embody the message “So shine” – even when it feels challenging.

So, with you as my witness, I am declaring my willingness to change my ways and get my shine on!  I hereby commit to my total and complete Self-care from the inside out starting right here and right now.  And I know that as I become the commitment to myself I will have that commitment show up in my external world.  And So It Is!

What do you want to have more of in your life?  How committed are you to becoming this first?  Are you ready to join me in getting your shine on as if your life depends on it and focus on the message instead of the “mess”?  If so, I support you 100%.  Keep me posted on your progress.  I want to hear.

To commitment – yours and mine!

So shine!

My 30′s: A Love Letter

Dear 30’s,

It’s the day before my 40th birthday and I was thinking about how I wanted to spend it.  How could I make this day as memorable as possible before I leap into a decade that fills me with a huge amount of excitement and a tiny hint of (hopefully healthy) fear?  And then it hit me… I want to spend the day with you.

Ten years ago when we entered this relationship, I was a splintered person in the midst of a family drama.  I had no idea who I really was.  I had no concept of what it meant to be in a healthy, loving, and committed relationship with myself.  And I did not understand that the power I constantly tried to give away to others was in fact mine to claim and own for me.  Because of you, that has all changed.

I stand before you today with genuine respect and deep gratitude for all that you have provided for me.  You have shown me how to hear, trust, and act upon my inner voice.  You supported my enthusiasm to keep saying, “Yes!” to brilliant opportunities and risks that grew me.  You helped me realize (see with “real eyes”) that love is all around me all the time reflected back to me through my family, friends and community.

After I ignored you repeatedly in the early years of my 30’s, you compassionately presented serious lessons with critical consequences that let me know I was not honoring myself and as a result, you showed me where I needed to give myself the love I was seeking from others.  You made me aware that I have everything I need right here, within me now.  You brought forth the resources that continue to help me be and serve big in the world.  You were relentless in showing me that the Universe is abundant, present, and friendly.  You helped me weed my garden of all the people, thoughts, and things that no longer serve me so that I have room to cultivate that which will serve me.  You were witness to my vowing to be a committed partner to myself.  You unleashed the mama bear inside of me who listens to me, loves me, takes care of me and empathizes with me at levels I have never known.

Because of all of this – because of you – I am a better daughter, sister, friend, partner and coach.  And I am forever appreciative of your patience and safe space that allowed that splintered little girl of 30 to become this integrated woman turning 40.

I feel so lucky to have had these years with you to break down and grow up.  I know there’s so much more to come and you have truly prepared me to launch into this next chapter of my life with a strength of heart, clarity about who I am and what I want, and the knowing I am the love, happiness, and divinity that I seek.  It’s a beautiful thing.

So, 30’s, today I am celebrating YOU.  I am thanking YOU.  I am hugging YOU.  I am blessing YOU.  And from the depths of my heart, I am LOVING YOU!

Truly, madly, deeply,

Stefanie

I Heart Valentine’s Day – Literally

It’s Valentine’s Day.  I’m walking along the streets of New York as people are rushing by me.  Something pulls my attention to the ground and I see this lovely, little, gray heart getting trampled on by the masses.  I’m stunned that no one’s noticing this sweet godwink.

I stop, move to it, and know it’s a sign to see the love that’s all around us all the time.  I heart this little gray heart, perfectly designed with napkins by the universe, reminding us that love is not black or white like the colors of the street upon which it sits, but rather a sweet melding of the two.  A sense of togetherness.  A union.

That universe is very creative.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  May you know how loved you are…